Simon Vai Stepaniak (born May 15, 1997) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

. He played college football at

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

College career

A three-star recruit, Stepaniak committed to

over offers from

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

, and Wake Forest, among others. In his first two seasons, he played behind

Dan Feeney Daniel Feeney (born May 29, 1994) is an American football guard for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Indiana, and was drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers in the third round of the 2017 NFL ...

. As a senior, Stepaniak started 10 games at right guard and one game at left guard. He earned third-team all-Big Ten honors. According to Pro Football Focus, he gave up one sack as a senior. Stepaniak made 31 career starts at Indiana.

Professional career

Stepaniak was selected by the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

in the sixth round with the 209th pick of the

2020 NFL Draft The 2020 NFL Draft was the 85th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2020 NFL season. The first round was held on April 23, followed by the second and third rounds on April 24. The d ...

. He was the Packers' third straight offensive line selection. He was signed on June 1, 2020. He was placed on the active/

non-football injury list Non-football injury and non-football illness (NFI) are roster designations used in the National Football League (NFL) for players who are unable to practice as a result of conditions unrelated to football, or injuries that did not occur during NFL g ...

at the start of training camp on July 31, 2020. He was moved to the reserve/non-football injury list at the start of the regular season on September 5, 2020. He was activated on December 9, 2020. On January 12, 2021, Stepaniak was placed on injured reserve. He was placed on the reserve/retired list on July 31, 2021.

References

External links

*
Green Bay Packers bio
1997 births Living people Players of American football from Cincinnati American football offensive tackles Indiana Hoosiers football players Green Bay Packers players {{Offensive-lineman-1990s-stub